The Method To My Chocolatey Madness

I did it! I made those super cute graduation caps from Wednesday's post! It took a little longer than I expected (an hour and 15 minutes), but I think if I did them today I could do them in about 45 minutes now that I have a method down. As a recap, my youth group had a party celebrating the graduating seniors this past Wednesday and I wanted to make something cute, and I found these on Pinterest:

Here's how mine turned out:

I used the method from Bakerella but instead of Godiva chocolate squares (which are a bit too expensive for my taste) I used Hershey's snack size bars and barbecue skewers from the Dollar Tree instead of lollipop sticks! Okay, I'll start from the beginning!

First I stuck my mini-reese's in the refrigerator to try to not have gross sides. But it didn't work...I think it's because they kind of melted on the way home in my car because it is sooo hot these days! See what I'm talking about?

Oh well! Didn't bother me! But I emptied the bag of mini-reese's that I got at Wal-Mart for $2.50, wrapperless on some wax paper, like so:

Then I got my skewers out. They were quite a bit too long, so I "cut" them by making a mark with a pen, making an indention with scissors, and breaking the stick. I got pictures to illustrate! So exciting, right?

Okay, this is the actual length of the skewers...perfect for shishkabobs, but waaay too long for what I'm doing!

So, I made a mark with a pen (all at one time...I layed the skewers out in a line so that I didn't have to mark each one individually and take foooorever), then I made that indentation with some scissors (they couldn't cut all the way through the stick...pansies).

 Then I broke them with my bare hands (I'm such a beast, I know) and put the non-usable side in a pile to go in the trash (I couldn't use them because my reese's were falling apart when I tried to put in the non-pointy side of the skewer...but Bakerella's version uses lollipop sticks that aren't pointy so I must've been doing something wrong)

And put the super awesome pointy ones in the pile to be used (btw, disregard my disgusting cutting board...kool-aid is such a jerk sometimes! But not to worry, it's all clean now!)

Then I stuck the pointy side of the skewer into the flat side of the reese's mini. Then I moved onto the top part of the hat!

I cut broke at the middle seam the snack size hershey's bar so that there were two sections to one hat, like this:

Then I flipped them over and used some yellow cake icing that I got from WalMart in the ready-to-squeeze bag. Well actually, I started out trying to use it without a tip (because I'm a cheapo and didn't want to buy icing tips for one project!). I tried making a straight line with a toothpick, my fingers, everything and nothing worked! Then I got a bag and cut a tiny hole in the corner and that worked like a charm!!

See all the cute little graduation hat toppers! Way to go Mr. Plastic Baggy! :) Also, see that chocolate almond bark in the background of that picture above? That was my glue!

I put one square in a little bowl along with some milk and microwaved it for 30 seconds; stirred, 15 seconds; stirred and scooped some extra into another tiny bowl I had on hand.  Then I used the end of that spoon I used to scoop the extra, to scoop the melted almond bark onto the small side of the reese's mini and stuck the little hats on top of the reese's!

Then I stuck all of them into some packing styrofoam Blake had in the office and let them cool! Which is that picture that you saw above!

And once they cooled, I put them in those red soho cups to be transported.

Then I thought about the hour long drive we were about to make in the 90 degree weather and thought...these aren't going to make it. So I got a big pot and put some lunch freezer blocks in the bottom and put the soho cups in as well. And they made it all the way there in the backseat of my car! Well, actually there were two that didn't make it, but church members were happy to take those off my hands anyway :)

And the party was a success! Everyone liked these little thingies, and told me they tasted good (I don't really like chocolate other than reese's cups, so I didn't try one).

Here's some pics from the par-tay!

Mmmm....Pizza!

Yay! Congrats Grads!! :)

Super cute right?? And I didn't even know the red soho cup would match the decor! Yippee!

Action shot! ;)

Stacy and I manning  womanning the nachos and drinks in the kitchen! (Isn't she stinkin gorgeous?!? LOVE HER!) :)

 And I also made these little guys as presents for the graduates (they're page corner bookmarks!) (tutorial available here!)

Blake made the little beaks made of money on the car ride to the church, aren't they super cute?! Love love them! :)

So that's the story! It was super fun making all that stuff (although I had a bit of a time constraint which made it more stressful that it should've been, but that's my fault) :)

How were your May festivities? Have any graduation parties of note? Or was it all quiet on the western front (or whatever front you're in...like I'm in the southeastern front...okay I'll stop now ;) )? Hope y'all's week has been fantastic and your weekend will be even better! :)